Turkey election results updates: Erdogan-Kilicdaroglu in run-off
All the latest updates as Turkey’s election body confirmed Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu will face off in a May 28 run-off.
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- Turkey’s presidential election will be decided in a May 28 run-off vote after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu failed to win an outright majority in the first round, according to the electoral body.
- Erdogan took 49.5 percent of Sunday’s vote, while Kilicdaroglu got 44.89 percent of the vote.
- Sinan Ogan of the right-wing ATA Alliance received 5.17 percent, emerging as a potential kingmaker.
- Erdogan’s alliance has also retained its hold on the country’s parliament following Sunday’s legislative ballot.
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A May 28 runoff between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been confirmed to decide who becomes Turkey’s next president.
Erdogan took 49.5 percent of Sunday’s presidential vote, with his main challenger, Kilicdaroglu, getting 44.89 percent.
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Erdogan: We will achieve historical success on May 28
Following Sunday’s election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country showed it has an “advanced democratic culture”.
“With the maturity it showed yesterday, Turkey has shown that it is one of the countries with the most advanced democratic culture in the world,” Erdogan said in a tweet on Monday.
The president said that he will emerge victorious in the May 28 runoff.
Turkey gave world a ‘lesson in democracy’
The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, has said in a statement that “the Turkish nation has given the whole world a lesson in democracy and have proven unfair claims, indecent insinuations, and baseless accusations wrong”.
“On May 28 [in the runoff election], Turkey will chose stability,” Bahçeli, an ally of President Erdogan, said on Monday.
“The Turkish nation gave a strong and spectacular support to the presidential government system on May 14,” he said. “It also reinforced the spirit of national unity and solidarity.”
Who will Sinan Ogan endorse?
In the aftermath of Turkey’s dramatic elections, a new name is on the lips of political commentators: third-placed presidential contender Sinan Ogan.
The nationalist candidate, backed by the ATA Alliance, secured 5.17 percent of the electorate. The support of those voters will be vital as President Erdogan and opposition leader Kilicdaroglu head to a second round on May 28 because neither crossed the 50-percent mark needed for an outright win.
“At the moment, we are not saying we will support this or that [candidate],” said Ogan, 55, early on Monday. “Those who do not distance themselves from terrorism should not come to us.”
Read the story here.
Mayors cry foul over news reporting by state news agency
Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavaş have cried foul over the way the state-run Anadolu news agency reported electoral results on Sunday, saying it had given an exaggerated portrayal of Erdogan’s lead.
Al Jazeera’s Omar Alhaj, reporting from Izmir, said the mayors “accused Anadolu Agency of trying to create an ‘atmosphere of [de facto] victory’ as to ruin their chances at winning the second round”.
They said the inflated results provided a disincentive for opposition voters to head to the polling centres, he added.
Anadolu initially projected a 54 to 40 percent win for Erdogan. The news agency is widely used by international outlets for the coverage of Turkey.
Turkey’s election board showed lack of transparency: OSCE
Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) showed a lack of transparency in its handling of Sunday’s elections, according to observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
An OSCE delegation said President Erdogan and the country’s ruling parties enjoyed an unjustified advantage over the opposition parties who faced unequal conditions for campaigning.
The findings were issued at a press conference on Monday.
“I regret to note that the election administration’s work was lacking in transparency,” Ambassador Jan Petersen, head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights election observation mission, said at the press conference in Ankara, Turkey.
Will voters change their minds in Hatay?
Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu both bagged 48 percent of the votes in Turkey’s Hatay province, the latter edging out the incumbent by a few percentage points.
Al Jazeera’s Amr Halabi, reporting from Gaziantep, wonders “whether the voters would change their minds in Hatay, a CHP stronghold”.
“All provinces affected by February’s devastating earthquakes voted for the ruling bloc in the parliamentary election, including Adana and Hatay,” he said.
“The big celebrations we witnessed last night, even before the official results had come in, were a sign of the great trust these provinces still have in Erdogan.”
The 11 provinces that were affected by February’s twin earthquakes were Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Sanliurfa, Adiyaman, Osmaniye, Adana and Elazig. Eight of those backed Erdogan in the presidential polls.
‘Very confident’ Erdogan will win: MP Eker
Mehmet Mehdi Eker, the AK Party member of parliament for Diyarbakir, told Al Jazeera the party was “very confident” Erdogan will win the presidential decider on May 28 despite it being the first time in over two decades in power that he faces a runoff.
“There is a 2.5 million vote gap between [Erdogan] and the closest opponent,” Eker said. “We also have a majority in parliament, which is very important in order to have an organised administration.”
Eker added that the opposition, led by Kilicdaroglu, had “no vision, no substance”.
“The only thing that he had in his campaign was anti-American propaganda,” he said.
Probe launched over social media posts spreading ‘false information’
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the social media accounts behind posts spreading false information about the election results, state media said.
It added that the office has also been examining provocative posts circulating false and misleading information about the voters in the regions affected by the massive February earthquakes.
Earthquake-hit regions back Erdogan and his party
The presidential and parliamentary election results in Turkey’s earthquake-hit provinces revealed major support for Erdogan and his AK Party.
The 11 provinces that were affected by February’s twin quakes were Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Sanliurfa, Adiyaman, Osmaniye, Adana and Elazig.
Eight of those backed Erdogan in the presidential polls. Adana, Hatay and Diyarbakir voted for Kilicdaroglu.
In the parliamentary polls, 10 of them voted for Erdogan’s AK Party with the exception of the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakir.
Erdogan defies ‘politicised’ opinion polls in Turkish election
Days before Turkey headed into the most consequential presidential election in its modern history, most opinion polls showed President Erdogan trailing opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
On Sunday, observers and voters were left baffled after results showed Erdogan leading by a healthy margin.
Sonar Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said the results confounded expectations.
“Erdogan pulling some three percentage points ahead or more … that’s surprising,” he told Al Jazeera from Ankara.
In a survey conducted on May 6-7, reputable pollster Konda put support for Kilicdaroglu at 49.3 percent and 43.7 percent for the 69-year-old incumbent. Another survey by Gezici showed Kilicdaroglu leading Erdogan by one point with 46.9 percent.
Read the story here.
Erdogan’s alliance holds lead in parliamentary elections in Istanbul, Ankara
Turkey is closely watching electoral results in major cities with Istanbul key in determining the general outcome.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said Erdogan’s ruling bloc is holding a lead in the city of 15.4 million as well as in the capital, Ankara, according to the parliamentary election results.
However, Erdogan’s rival Kilicdaroglu won more votes in the two key provinces in the presidential polls.
The coastal city of Izmir remained a stronghold of Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party and also voted for him.
In eastern and southeastern cities, “most of the voters have voted for the green left party, which is the new umbrella for the pro-Kurdish HDP,” Koseoglu said.
Turkey’s lira, stocks and dollar bonds tumble after polls
Turkey’s lira held near a two-month low, its sovereign dollar bonds tumbled and the cost of insuring exposure to the country’s debt spiked after Sunday’s elections.
Turkish stocks also fell with the main banking index slumping by more than 9 percent.
The lira was valued at 19.66 to the dollar at 10:34 GMT after falling to 19.70 in earlier trading, its weakest since a record low of 19.80 hit in March this year after deadly earthquakes.
The Istanbul bourse was trading more than 2 percent lower after an earlier 6.38 percent drop triggered a market-wide circuit breaker.
“This is a major disappointment to investors hoping for a win for opposition candidate Kilicdaroglu and the reversion to orthodox economic policy he promised,” said Hasnain Malik, head of equity research at Tellimer.
How did Turkey vote?
OSCE’s Petersen warns of ‘bias in the media’
Jan Petersen of the OSCE Election Observation Mission tells Al Jazeera that there are “positive and negative elements to this election” after his organisation said the ruling AK Party had an unfair advantage.
“Among the positives are the high turnout, a real choice between clear alternatives,” Petersen said before highlighting what he said was “bias in the media”.
“We have concerns, which we are putting in our report not for the first time,” he said.
Petersen said the OSCE mission will be staying for the May 28 run-off.
Kilicdaroglu: ‘I will stand tall’
Kilicdaroglu has told his supporters to remain optimistic going into the presidential run-off, adding that he and his team have been working non-stop since Sunday.
“Do not become hopeless. I will stand tall. I will explain my clear findings regarding everything that has happened,” he tweeted.
“And afterwards, we will stand up and take this election together,” he said. “At the end of everything, it will only be what our nation decides.”
Ogan says ‘terrorism’, refugees are ‘red lines’
In an interview with Reuters, Ogan says he will consult with his voter base before making a decision on whom to support in the run-off.
“But we already made clear that the fight against terrorism and sending refugees back are our red lines,” Ogan said.
He said he could only support Kilicdaroglu in the run-off if the opposition candidate agrees to offer no concessions to a pro-Kurdish party. He added that his goal was to remove two mainly Kurdish parties from Turkey’s “political equation” and bolster Turkish nationalists and secularists.
Turkish electoral chief says presidential race to go to run-off
The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council confirms that the presidential election will go to a run-off between the incumbent, Erdogan, and the main opposition candidate, Kilicdaroglu on May 28 because neither reached the 50 percent threshold to win outright.
Council Chairman Ahmet Yener told reporters that with about 35,000 votes left to be counted, Erdogan had won 49.51 percent of the vote and Kilicdaroglu 44.88 percent.
OSCE election observers say ruling AK Party had unfair advantage
The parliamentary assembly of the world’s largest security organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has announced its findings after monitoring the Turkish elections.
While it congratulated the Turkish people on their democratic spirit, it said the ruling AK Party had an unfair advantage.
The parliamentary assembly of the 57-member OSCE said Turkish media organisations faced limitations during the vote and were unfairly biased towards Erdogan’s People’s Alliance.
The OSCE also voiced disappointment over Turkey barring two lawmakers from a 100-strong mission monitoring Sunday’s elections.
Turkish authorities had denied mission accreditation to Danish MP Soren Sondergaard and Swedish MP Kadir Kasırga.
Turkey’s Ogan welcomes kingmaker role in presidential run-off
Ogan, who finished third in the presidential election, tells Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency that he wants firm assurances on a range of issues before he will endorse a candidate in a run-off vote on May 28.
“We have some preconditions,” Ogan said at his Ankara office, singling out fighting terrorism and the return of Syrian refugees.
He said constitutional protections to ensure Turkey’s secular principles were also necessary to obtain the support of his ATA Alliance, named after the Turkish republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Ogan said he will ask whoever he endorses to sign and share details of an agreement in a “transparent protocol” with the public.
Ankara votes for Kilicdaroglu
Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera’s Farah al-Zaman Shawki, says the vote count for the capital city has been determined.
“Ankara is settled, and vote counting has ended. Ankara voted for Kilicdaroglu, who got 47 percent, compared to 46 percent for Erdogan,” Shawki said.
“The Turkish opposition achieved its victory in Ankara,” she said.
Turkish opposition supporters voice dismay over presidential vote
Opposition voters have expressed dismay and disbelief after Erdogan took a solid lead in the first round of Turkey’s presidential election.
“I have witnessed many elections,” said 55-year-old Menser Ozakdag, a taxi driver. “My 14-year-old daughter, who waited up all night for the election results, went to bed disappointed. They have left me devastated this time.”
“All I want is freedom, democracy, justice,” he said. “… I wish I had been born in another country.”
Izmir’s preliminary results show support for Kilicdaroglu
Reporting from Izmir, Al Jazeera’s Omar Hajj says the final results for the parliamentary and presidential elections are yet to be announced.
“Most votes in Izmir have been for the People’s Republican People’s Party [CHP],” said Hajj.
“In general, Izmir is known to be a stronghold for the CHP, but some cities voted for Erdogan. This constitutes a change in the mood of the Turkish voters here,” he added.
Loyalty to AK Party ‘not shaken’ in southern provinces
Reporting from Gaziantep, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr says southern provinces have continued to show support for Erdogan’s National Alliance.
“These are traditionally its [AK Party] strongholds, provinces that were hit hard by the earthquake,” said Khodr. “So people’s loyalties were not shaken.”
“Yes, there was anger in the aftermath of the earthquakes for the government’s initial slow response. Yes, there’s still anger that the reconstruction has not begun in earnest. But the AK Party maintained its support in the region,” she added.
Istanbul votes reflect support for the opposition
Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Fal says the results of the presidential and parliamentary votes in the megacity reflected support for the opposition.
“Istanbul voted 48 percent in favour of Kilicdaroglu, while the metropolis gave 46 percent of its votes to Erdogan,” said Fal.
“Istanbul voted also for the People’s Republican Party [CHP] in parliament. This is remarkable,” he added.